 'Christus' was published in 1872 and premiered in the Protestant church at Weimar on 29 May 1873.The oratorio is of around three hours in duration and requires significant orchestral and vocal forces, which makes it rather a rarity in concert halls of today, and despite this most of the work is of almost chamber proportions and quite personal in mood.For the text Liszt uses the Bible, the Catholic liturgy and some ancient Latin hymns; in that sense he did not want to experiment.